Students Perform at Poetry and Spoken Word Event (via The Ramapo News)

The College Programming Board made themselves busy in Friends Hall on Friday preparing for their Slam Poetry event.

“I completely forgot about this bad mamma-jamma,” junior Chris Cortez said, lugging a speaker across the room. At the back of the hall, others were laying out refreshments upon a table for guests’ enjoyment, while another adjusted the on-stage microphone.

Participants and audience members began to drift in, seating themselves in the chairs aligned before the stage. While the audience would be an active one throughout the event – calling out words of encouragement and snapping their fingers – the total number of attendees was relatively low, a fact Cortez attributed to poor advertising.

The event was a contest, judged by audience members who had not competed themselves. Two winners would be chosen by the end of the night, each receiving a $50 gift card and the opportunity to perform at an upcoming CPB event. The poets and rappers who performed were each unique in that none of the contestants’ work could be mistaken for another’s.